The Night That Changed It All
by dazed.aurora
Summary: It's the story of Lily and James during their 7th year and the events leading up to them getting together. Plus what happens in the duration of their 7th year and a little bit of their life after Hogwarts.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I didn't make up any of the characters or settings or anything like that (except Kirk, Addie and Nina). It's all owned by JK Rowling :)

**Chapter One**

"Well, that's all I have for this meeting. Does anyone have anything to add?" Lily said to the zoned out group of prefects sitting in front of her.

"Yeah, I have something," James said rather loudly, she thought mostly to wake people up. "Everyone, go get some sleep. And I promise that the next meeting will be kept under four hours," he said chuckling.

There were murmurs of thanks and grumbles about the time as the prefects all left the classroom heading back to their respective rooms, until only Lily and James were left. They silently cleaned up the bits of parchment and broken quills the prefects were attempting to take notes with and when everything was finished, left the room together and headed for Gryffindor tower, locking the classroom door behind them. As they walked through the darkened halls, they didn't say a word to each other. And for those closest to them, this was an unusual situation. They were always trading quips with one another, even when they were alone on nights like this after prefect meetings. But the last month had been different. Lily had started dating her current boyfriend, Kirk MacLeod, around the time that James had stopped talking to her, but she didn't think that there could be a connection. She'd dated before and that hadn't stopped James from torturing her and making fun of her, in public or in private. And she'd decided during the meeting that the silence had gone on long enough. She actually missed those talks, because for all James acted carefree and like he didn't care, he really was a serious person - almost as much as she was herself.

"James, can I ask you something?" Lily asked tentatively.

"Sure, I guess you can. But if you're going to ask me if I looked over the plans for the watch rotations, the answer is no. Quidditch has been beating everything on the importance scale. We're playing Slytherine for, basically, the House Cup in a few weeks 'cause no one else is even near us in the points except for them." He replied in a less than friendly tone, not even looking at Lily as he spoke.

"That's not what I was going to ask because I already knew the answer," she said chuckling, and then growing serious said, "I was going to ask why you've only been talking to me when everyone else is around. You'll poke fun at me when Sirius and Remus and Nina and Addie are around, but when it's just the two of us, you hardly say two words. Did I do something? Was it something that I said? Am I the reason you won't talk to me anymore?"

"Are you kidding me? What could you have possibly done? Lil you're perfect. You've never stepped a toe over the line. You're amazing in every class you take. Bloody hell you're even Head Girl. So no, it's definitely nothing you've done Lily." James said vehemently with an incredulous look on his face.

"Well, what is it then? Because I miss talking to you James, I really do…" She said, trailing off as James stopped walking.

"Do you really want to know? Or do you just want to know because you have to control every aspect of your life and right now I'm not fitting into your perfect plan? And think about your answer, because the way you answer determines everything that I'm going to say to you."

"Of course I want to know, and not just because I like to control my life. But because I'm scared that I'll lose our friendship if I don't ask, because God knows you bloody well won't say anything unless I pry it out of you."

"Well, here it goes. I like you Lily, I really like you. I have for a while and I didn't know how to handle it because we're friends. And then about a month ago I hear Kirk talking in the locker room after practice one day about how you guys have been hanging out a lot and that he'd finally gotten up the nerve to ask you to be his girlfriend and you'd said yes. I was flabbergasted. Here's a guy that probably doesn't know you half as well as I do and he's the one that got up the nerve to ask you out. And here's me, a guy that probably knows you better than Addie and Nina do and I chicken out every time I tell myself I'm going to ask you out. And as for the reason I haven't talked to you - it's because Kirk doesn't want me to. That same day he asked to talk to me privately, which I thought was about the quidditch game the following week and a strategy on how to not humiliate Hufflepuff, but it ended up being about my relationship with you. He told me that he didn't like how much we talked, and that since you had a boyfriend now, you didn't need me to talk to for a guy's perspective. He even said that you'd told him how uncomfortable it'd be since we were on the team together. I didn't think that he'd lie about something like that, so I just did what he asked and stopped talking to you." James finished, letting out a sigh as though he'd been holding his breath while he was talking.

"James… Why would I not want to talk to you? Even if I did, do you really think that I'd have Kirk do the dirty work for me? I've always been really straight forward with you James, why stop now? And why would you chicken out about asking me out? We can talk about anything," Lily said, looking up at James and wondering what she would have said even just a few months ago had James actually asked her out.

James looked down at her and just stared. His eyes searched her face and then their eyes locked. He opened his mouth, starting to say something, when they heard a slight rustle from down the corridor they'd turned from. James immediately turned around and peered around the corner, and the moment was broken. He turned around and mouthed "Filtch" and pointed to the door beside him. He turned the handle and motioned her inside, then followed close behind as he shut the door. They held their breath as they watched the flickering flame of the candle Filtch was holding pass by the door and disappear around the next corner. Lily and James waited a few extra minutes before cracking open the door and peeking outside to see if the coast was clear. Seeing that it was, they both let out a sigh of relief and walked out of the room.

"We should get back. It's getting late James." Lily said, starting to walk towards Gryffindor tower.

"Yeah, we probably should get going." James replied, and they walked in silence the rest of the way back.

When they got to the portrait of the Fat Lady, they gave the password "Globwobble" and James motioned for Lily to go in first. As he walked in behind her, he bumped into her because she'd stopped. He looked up and started to say something to her, but saw what had made her stop so suddenly. It was Kirk, with his arms wrapped around Sylvia Whit, another seventh year student, but more on Kirk's level of experienced. James instantly saw red. He was enraged that Kirk would have someone as amazing as Lily and cheat on her with someone worth half as much.

James cleared his throat and Kirk and Sylvia jumped apart, startled that their late night rendezvous had been walked in on. "Excuse me, but I think you have some explaining to do Kirk. Sylvia, go to bed. Lil, will you be okay?" James announced, walking over and lightly guided Sylvia towards the girls' dormitory staircase. As he walked across the room, Kirk glared at him. When he glanced at Lily, she looked hurt, but straightened her shoulders when she met his eyes. James nodded, satisfied that Lily would be okay taking care of everything and said, "I'm heading up to my room, but if you need me Lil, you know where to find me."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

After he walked up the stairs, Lily finally looked at Kirk. She didn't say anything for a while, just looked and thought while Kirk squirmed under her intense gaze. When she finally spoke, he was startled. "Why Kirk? All I want to know is why, because as far as I'm concerned, we're over. Now."

"You really want to know why? I'll tell you why. You're too damn puritanical for me, hell for any guy. You wouldn't even kiss me until just last week. That was after what, almost a month of dating? We should've been snogging in private corners by now – but no, not with you. You've got to be practically a nun. Well, I can't live like that. I'm a guy. I have needs. And I realize that sounds clichéd, but I don't care. It's the truth." Kirk looked at Lily for a second more and then just walked away. He walked up the boys' dormitory stairs, to the room he shared with six other seventh year guys.

Lily didn't know what to do. She wanted to scream, she wanted to cry, she wanted to beat Kirk senseless. But instead of doing those things, she walked up the boys' dormitory stairs and headed to James's single room. She walked in without knocking, knowing that he'd still be up and waiting for her. Without saying a word to each other, Lily walked over to James's bed and sat down beside him.

"He called me pur-puri-tanical…" was all Lily got out before she started sobbing, and even thought she was sitting on the bed, she crumpled into James's arms.

As he held her, James smoothed her hair and rocked back and forth, like his mother used to do when he was little and was upset. "Lily… Don't listen to that jerk, because he obviously wouldn't know a good thing if it hit him square in the face. If he can't respect you about that stuff, he wouldn't have respected you about anything else. And I hate to say it, but at least you found out sooner rather than later."

After a while, her sobbing quieted and soon stopped, but she kept her head buried in James's shoulder. Then, she almost whispered, "James, do you think it's bad that I'm not like other girls? I mean, that I don't do as much as they do."

"Lil, of course I don't think it's a bad thing. I think it's cool that you're sticking by what you believe. Not many people do that anymore. And besides, you wouldn't be special anymore if you were like other girls." James replied, closing his eyes and resting his head on her chin.

"But…" Lily said trailing off and looking up at James. "But wouldn't _you_ like me more? I'm not stupid James. I know you've been really physical with your girlfriends. Wouldn't you like me even more, and maybe have gotten up the nerve to ask me out already, if I were more experienced?"

James looked down at her face, wishing that she didn't look so vulnerable and fragile, because it made him want to kill Kirk for making her feel like she wasn't good enough for anyone, when the truth was no one was good enough for her. He cupped her cheek with his hand and said, "You having experience like that wouldn't have made me like you any more than I already do, because I don't think that I could. And honestly if you were more experienced I think I'd have been more intimidated so it wouldn't have helped me ask you out." He just looked at her, not knowing what else to say or what to do.

"Well, we both know I've never been too shy about most things," Lily said pulling away slightly, "What would you say if I asked you out, right here, right now."

James looked startled for a moment, then relaxed and answered her, "Honestly, I'd say no. At least because of the right here, right now part. You need time to get over Kirk being an ass and I need time to get up the nerve to ask you out, because as much as I like the fact that you take charge and aren't shy about anything, I will be the one to ask you out. And you won't see it coming either – it's going to be a surprise."

Lily looked at James like he'd grow an extra head. After everything they'd talked about, he was turning her down. But she understood why, and it kind of scared her that James was being the level headed one this time, and she the impulsive one. When she thought about it, James was completely right, they both needed time to think about this development in their relationship and where it was going to lead. So she stood up, pulling James up with her, turned to face him and said, "I agree. I acted hastily and didn't think things through. I do need time to forget about Kirk. But I'm not going to wait for forever for you to get up the nerve to ask me out. I'm giving this a month. If you haven't asked me out by then, I'm asking you out myself."

James smiled and chuckled softly, "You got it Lil, one month." Then he leaned down and kissed her softly. "And I promise the surprise will be worth the wait."

"Okay James." Lily said smiling. "Goodnight. I'll see you tomorrow for breakfast?"

"Yep, see you at breakfast Lil. Goodnight and sweet dreams." James replied, as Lily walked out of his room. And he knew, somehow, that their lives had been changed forever.


End file.
